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Saturday, June 12, 2010

Big Bike Event at Our Home

We've been riding a ton, writing very little. I have much to blog about & need to keep up reporting on our participation in LGRAB Summer Games events. I couldn't however let yesterday's BIG BIKE EVENT AT OUR HOME pass without marking it here.

Our little guy, F, aged four and a half, learned to ride a two-wheeler yesterday. Yes! It was so exciting. He's been on a balance/push bike for over a year and yesterday, my husband raised its seat. F was riding his balance bike up and down our block with ease, lifting his feet higher and higher with longer intervals between putting his feet down. P, watching him, thought F could likely ride one of his brother's two wheelers. F was game. It took only a couple of spills (plus, he hasn't quite gotten stopping down) but off he went. It was truly magical!

I have to say thanks to all the bike bloggers out there that talked about bypassing training wheels and just go balance bike to two-wheeler. In this case, it worked perfectly.

I love that moment. It's so great and makes me teary. Same with swimming.

I want T to try the riding- but he is too short to reach ground when not pedaling so he is using training wheels. He is so sick of them though... He'll choose balance bike for speed, and pedal bike for the novalty to pedalling...

We've got L in his seat now and he doesn't hate it, especially if we bribe him with a Wasa cracker. He likes to bang on his safety bar and frequently tries to change gears for me. We rode up to Fort Greene park yesterday to see friends and then headed to Madiba to watch Germany tromp Australia. Very fun.

Yea Finn! Big exciting day. The other thing about training wheels I hate--on a dirt driveway, when you go over a low spot (there are lots of low spots), the training wheels end up on land, while the back tire spins.

I don't have kids yet, but this is great advice for when they're ready to learn.Balance bikes seem like such an obviously good concept. I remember my struggles to ditch the training wheels- it was really traumatic if I can remember it almost 30 years later!

hmm, my nephew has a birthday coming up-how old is the youngest you would suggest a balance bike?